If the Villagers Were Right
by Kythorian
Summary: What if the villagers were right about Naruto after all? What if he really WAS the Kyubi in human form? The Fourth's seal might have held back the chakra of the nine-tailed fox, but what is the mind of a newborn against that of the greatest of the tailed-beasts.
1. Possession is Nine Tenths of the Law

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters from the Naruto universe. I am making no money off of this fanfiction.

**A/N:**

Summary: What if the villagers were right about Naruto after all? What if he really WAS the Kyubi in human form? The Fourth's seal might have held back the chakra of the nine-tailed fox, but what is the mind of a newborn against that of the greatest of the tailed-beasts. Will feature a Naruto/Kyubi who is not exactly evil, but is fairly amoral and dismissing of humans who are not personal friends as completely insignificant. Will be cunning and underhanded, but yet have a very strict sense of honor. Tricksterfox!naruto.

Pairings: I have not decided yet. It won't be Sakura. I don't have anything against that pairing, and have seen it done very well (though also horribly), but she has a different role in my story. She won't be bashed though. Hinata is a possibility, or maybe one of the rarer characters. Regardless, there will be none of that until after the timeskip so it's a moot point for now.

This will not be a godlike!naruto story though. He will be powerful-significantly more so than cannon and definitely a lot smarter, but he won't be casually slapping around the likes of Kakashi or Zabuza pre-timeskip, much less S-Class ninja. He also won't be able to access most of his Kyubi chakra for quite a while, and as a bijuu, he has no prior experience with fighting in a human body or using human chakra/techniques. So while his greater intelligence and a few other things will give him some advantages, he certainly isn't going to be instantly all-powerful.

I would also like to note that this fanfiction took a good deal of inspiration from the fic Fuzzy Logic by Deritine (which is a fanfic I highly recommend, by the way). Not that the plot is even remotely similar to that fic's plot (given the fact that story has Kyubi possessing Madara Uchiha, turning the body female, ending up in a pairing with Minato, of all people, and acting as a mother figure to Naruto), but the idea of the actual Kyubi masquerading as a jinchuriki and being, though not evil, pretty amoral and chaotic as he slowly grows to actually care for some of the worthless little meatbags is partially inspired by that fanfic.

Finally, there are some parts of Minato and Kushina's conversation in this chapter that are either closely based on or even directly taken from episode 249 of the Naruto Shippuuden anime. It probably won't happen again, as this story will diverge from cannon too much for there to be any direct copying of conversations after this chapter. Nevertheless, I wanted to note that I make no claims on ownership of any part of this conversation which came from that episode.

**Chater 1: Possession is Nine Tenths of the Law**

Freedom! At last, he was free. After most of a century of being controlled, bound, and used, he was liberated from all controls. He gave a roar of triumph that shattered windows for miles and made nearby buildings collapse. He was Kurama, the Kyubi no Kitsune, greatest of the Bijuu, and at last he could remind people of what that meant.

It had began so many decades ago when Madara Uchiha had summoned him against his will from his peaceful resting place hidden in the mountains of northwestern Fire Country and used those damnable sharingan eyes to control him and use him to attack Hashirama Senju. Senju had eventually broken Madara's control and driven the Uchiha away, something that would have ordinarily received praise and thanks from the Kyubi. But then he had his wife, Mito Uzumaki take advantage of his weakened state and seal him within herself, even though he was released from control and no danger to anyone who simply left him alone.

Why? Because he saw the Bijuu as just another tool to be controlled and used by ninja, just like all the other Shinobi Villages. Something to be passed out as weapons to help establish balance between the villages and create peace. What a laughable concept. But not so laughable when _he_ was the one being enslaved at another's whim for their own _use_. And people wondered where the hate most bijuu had for humans came from. Or those few who didn't just dismiss them as demons who got what they deserved wondered, anyway.

And so he spent decade after decade chained within first Mito Uzumaki, then her relative Kushina Uzumaki. Within a seal, staked to the ground, and chained to the point he could not move at all in total darkness and agony. Ninja would not treat even their greatest enemies in such a way, but of course _Bijuu_ were just _demons_, and thus apparently deserved nothing but pain and enslavement for the use of ninja. Well today their _consideration_ would be repaid in full.

It had begun much like every other day. Kushina was apparently giving birth, making the seal at its weakest, but he could feel the constant flow of chakra into the seal keeping it stable, allowing no chance of escape. But then suddenly that changed. The seal weakened, and he was able to bring his full power to bear, breaking free. It didn't last long, as Madara, or someone with similar chakra and eyes, once again took control of him, turning everything into a hazy blur of rage until suddenly that was gone as well.

And best of all, he found himself right in the middle of Konoha itself, the city of his tormenters and slavers. He would have to thank Madara someday. Right after he ate him and turned the rest of the Uchiha and their cursed eyes into ash, of course. But at last, he could have his revenge against those who dared to try and bind the most powerful being in existence as their slave.

He gave out another roar and what could possibly have been interpreted as a smile by an expert on demon's expressions, if such a thing existed. But it was so sinister it would be difficult to actually describe it as a smile in spite of the true joy which definitely also filled the expression.

There was a pause in the battle as everyone stopped to look at the suddenly still Kyubi, as well as recover from the disorientation and pain to their ears his roars caused. Then suddenly he exploded into motion once again. His tails swept through entire districts of Konoha while his claws smashed through the largest of buildings in the city such as the Hokage Tower and the hospital.

Ninja attacked him with explosive notes and their most powerful jutsu, but these were mere bee stings to the massive fox, and the chakra that made up his body regenerated more quickly than the wounds could be inflicted anyway. And in return, he swept his claws through the ninja, killing dozens with nothing more than the air pressure and heat created by being _near_ his attacks. He breathed gouts of flame hot enough to turn entire buildings to ash, much less the ninja who tried to take cover within.

Then suddenly one old ninja used some sort of extending staff to hit him hard enough to drive him outside of the village. Did this old man really think that would be enough to stop him though? The force of the staff might have been enough to turn most humans into piles of goo, but for him, it caused some mild bruising on his chest which faded before the staff could even pull back into its normal length. Clearly these ninja didn't realize his power even after all the destruction he had wrought. Well, perhaps it was time to show them.

After swatting away another few dozen of their most elite ninja, he began to gather his chakra into a ball in front of him. The sphere of pure malignant energy was dense enough that it continued to compress smaller and smaller even as more power was gathered, much like a black hole. Until a giant toad, of all things, dropped on top of him. But he would not be stopped. Certainly not by a summons, especially not a toad. So he ate the ball, molding fire and lightning into it within his body to complete one of the most destructive techniques ever used. He almost smirked as he saw the fear in the tiny faces of the pathetic humans who saw their deaths and the destruction of their homes coming for them.

And then he was elsewhere. There was no forewarning or even any feeling of movement. But it was too late to stop the technique, which was released with a massive explosion which unfortunately destroyed nothing but some forest and a large hill. But he could still feel several chakra sources nearby, so he quickly climbed to his feet, ready to destroy whoever used that space-time manipulation technique and temporarily robbed him of his rightful revenge. Perhaps if he hadn't been so consumed with his rage, or perhaps if he hadn't been disoriented by his sudden and unexpected teleportation he would have noticed the approaching shining golden chains rushing towards him in time to avoid them.

Certainly he knew what they were, having been bound by them for a decade in his latest seal inside of Kushina Uzumaki. These were the materialized chakra chains only the most potent chakra, rare even in the Uzumaki Clan, could produce, and as he struggled against them, he found that even in the physical world, they were strong enough to contain his might. For a time, at least. Kushina would tire soon. Or possibly just die, given the fluctuations he was sensing in her chakra. That would be something to celebrate, since she was one of those who had directly enslaved and tortured him for so long. And then he would be free once more to kill whoever this blond man is who was able to teleport him, and ultimately destroy that cursed village who had tried to bind and use him for so long. Very soon, he would have his revenge. Until then, he strained against the chains to put as much pressure on Kushina's chakra as possible, but he was content to wait a short while again. This time, he would not be denied.

* * *

Minato Namikaze still gasped and panted with the effort of using the Flying Thunder God technique to carry such a huge chakra with him, even along a comparatively short distance. His chakra was mostly depleted, and his beautiful wife Kushina coughed up blood as she struggled to contain the Kyubi with her chakra chains. Then she spoke, "I'm going to draw the Kyubi with me to my death, then we can delay its revival. I'll be able to save all of you with what little chakra I have left." She smiled and looked down at their newborn child Naruto, who Minato held close.

Minato paused and looked down at Naruto as well with a strange mix of sorrow and joy. "No Kushina. Preserve what little chakra you still have for a reunion with Naruto." Kushina gasped in shock, but he didn't give her a chance to respond as he continued, "I'll seal all of your remaining chakra inside Naruto. It will be part of an Eight Trigrams Seal. Together with my own remaining chakra, I will seal the Kyubi within our son."

Kushina shook her head with tears flowing as she responded, "No, Minato. The Eight Trigrams Seal is powerful, and would be able to hold even the Kyubi, but you are not strong enough to pull it into the seal. And I can only use my chakra chains to pull the Kyubi into myself, not into another. I'm not sure that it is possible for anyone other than an Uzumaki to pull the full chakra of the Kyubi even for a moment."

Minato looked up at the massive demon, still struggling against Kushina's chains. "There are two ways that I could use to successfully seal the Kyubi. I could use the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to summon the Shinigami and have it take half of the Kyubi's chakra, weakening it enough to seal the other half within Naruto. Or I can open the eight gates to give me the power to seal all of the Kyubi within Naruto."

Kushina gasped again and asked, "You can open the eight gates?"

Minato nodded as he looked away from the Kyubi and met Kushina's eyes. "Yes, I learned recently in order to further improve my taijutsu and lessen my reliance on the Flying Thunder God technique. I never imagined I would need to open all eight, but that will give me, for a short time, the power to pull even the Kyubi into a seal, though it will cost me my life. Both methods will kill me, actually. But I am prepared to die for Konoha. At least with the eight gates, I won't be stuck fighting in the Shinigami's stomach for the rest of eternity, and we can be reunited in death." He smiled as he reached out to wipe away a tear from Kushina's cheek.

"But why do you have to die at all? I will just pull him back within my seal. I'm going to die anyway from the damage done to my chakra coils when the Kyubi escaped. Let me take him with me, and if he comes back once he re-creates himself in a few years, you can be prepared for him. Naruto needs his father to teach and protect him as he grows up, not the life of solitude and pain as a Jinchuriki without even his parents to comfort him." She shook her head in anger and denial, flinging her tears away from her cheeks.

Minato dropped his head and sighed in pain at the situation. "No, if you seal the power of the Kyubi within you when you die, there won't be a jinchuriki when it reemerges. That will upset the balance of power between the Bijuu and between the Shinobi villages. Also, I believe that Naruto is the Child of Prophesy Jiraiya-sensei spoke of. I can't explain why, but I am convinced it is true. And the masked man who attacked you earlier causing the release of the Kyubi is a harbinger of disaster. I believe Naruto will be the one to stop him, but he will need all the power of the Kyubi in order to do so and live up to his destiny."

Kushina continued to slowly leak tears as she finally looked up at Minato and Naruto. "Are you sure? This is the only way? Also, I'm not sure it's a good idea to seal the full power of the Kyubi into Naruto. Always before the Kyubi was sealed when the jinchuriki was old enough to be able to fight it and put it under our control long enough to get it behind the seal."

Minato nodded and replied, "It's dangerous, yes. But I am certain that my seal will be able to hold back the Kyubi's power until Naruto is old enough to take control of it himself, especially with the full power of the eight gates supporting it. We must trust our son in this. And your chakra will be sealed in too, so you will be able to help him when the time comes to take control over the Kyubi's chakra as a jinchuriki. This is the only way that we will be able to provide Naruto with the power he needs to fulfill his destiny to bring hope and peace to this land."

"No! Why must Naruto be sacrificed for this? Why must you die for this? For the sake of the village and the balance of power, our _son_ must be sacrificed? I don't accept that!" She coughed a little more blood as she gasped against the strain her body was being put through as well as the intensity of her argument.

But Minato was calm in response as he said, "To forsake one's nation and one's village is the same as forsaking one's child. Your own homeland was destroyed, so you of all people should know the harsh life that awaits those without a country. Besides, our family is Konoha Shinobi. We will always fulfill our duty to our village. Whether that duty is to die for our village and our son, or to grow strong to face the threats that will come against Konoha." Kushina merely stared at Minato and Naruto with tears streaming, but she seemed to accept her words. Finally, he looked down at Naruto in his arms with a smile as he continued, "It is time now."

He quickly summoned the ritual alter and set Naruto on it, ready to complete the sealing, then began to unlock the gates within his own body, each releasing greater and greater chakra which had been held back to prevent damage to his body previously. But as more and more gates were released, the chakra available to him and the strength of his body was increased vastly beyond what was previously possible. Yet, at the same time, he could already feel his muscles begin to tear, and his chakra coils straining against the sudden massive flow of energy.

Finally, seven gates were open, and he looked over at Kushina once again. "I'm sorry Kushina. I wish there was another way. But there is not. However, know that I love you. Everything good in my life came from you, including giving me our son. I will see you soon in death. And we shall see Naruto once more when he is grown and ready to take the Kyubi's chakra through our own chakra sealed within him."

Kushina struggled to stand and stumbled over to Minato, hugging him tightly as she responded, "I know Minato. I still am not certain that this is the best thing for Naruto, but I trust you with our son. If you are certain that he needs this power, I will accept it. Just please promise me that you will make sure the village sees him as the hero that protects them, and not as many other villages look at Jinchuriki."

Minato nodded as he held his wife close. "I will. I won't last long after you, but I will make sure that Hiruzen understands, and he will make sure that the rest of the village sees him as the hero he is."

Kushina gave a faint smile as she briefly kissed Minato. "I love you Minato. Always." She then slowly pulled away and leaned down over Naruto to stroke his cheek. "And I love you Naruto-chan. I will see you again when you are all grown up, but know that I love you more than anything. There is so much more I wish I could say to you. I wish I could spend just a little more time with you. I know that we would have been so happy. But if I only have time to tell you one thing, it is that your mother loves you more than anything else in the entire world." She then nodded in Minato's direction.

He nodded in response, and intoned, "**Gate of Death: Open**." The sudden rush of chakra was overpowering, greater even than all of the previous gates combined. While his total chakra was still dwarfed by the massive amount produced by the nearby Kyubi, for the first time, it was significant enough to be felt along with that oppressive evil feeling chakra, even from miles away.

He then went through the seal sequence for the Eight Trigrams Sealing Technique, a combination of two of the already immensely powerful Four Symbols Seals, making it probably the most powerful Seal ever created. While this seal was appearing on his son's stomach, he used his suddenly inhumanly powerful chakra to _pull_ against the already contained chakra of the Kyubi, forcibly linking it into Naruto as it began to drain into the seal, along with Kushina's small remaining chakra, and finally, most of his own, which was a great deal more than usual because of the increases from opening the eight gates.

When he was done, he wearily looked up at the empty space where the Kyubi stood moments before, then down at his crying child, with the body of his now dead wife lying peacefully beside the baby. He took a moment to rest his hand against her cooling cheek as his own tears began to fall for the first time since his son's birth before regretfully reaching over to pick up Naruto. He could also feel his own body beginning to shut down from the massive trauma caused by releasing the eighth gate so he didn't have much time to finish things.

By this point the barrier Kushina had earlier created around the area to hold the Kyubi had fallen and Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, had hurried over to Minato as he looked up at the aged man and carefully handed over his child. "This is my son, Naruto Namikaze. He is the new jinchuriki for the Kyubi." He paused in thought for a moment, and then said, "He will have to go by Naruto Uzumaki though. Iwa and maybe some of my enemies in this village would try to kill him if they knew he was my son, at least until he is powerful enough to take care of himself. I'll let you and his godfather Jiraiya-sensei make the judgment of when he and the village are ready to know. Make sure that the people see him as a hero who keeps them safe from the Kyubi though. It is my last command as Hokage."

At this point Hiruzen slowly accepted the child, but said in a confused voice, "Your last command? What do you mean?"

With a pained chuckle, Minato replied, "I had to open all eight gates to complete the sealing. I only have a minute or two left. I guess you will have to take all that paperwork back afterall."

Hiruzen paused for a moment, and then reached his free hand to rest on Minato's shoulder as he responded. "You would really do that to an old man like me?" But it was clear from his voice that his heart was not in the joke. After another pause, he continued, "I'm sorry Minato. You were probably the best Hokage this village has had. I will look after your son though. I promise."

Minato nodded as he dropped to his knees, barely able to keep his eyes open as his heart beat erratically. "There was a man. He caused this. He attacked Kushina and I after the birth to break the Kyubi free and used his Sharingan to take control of it. Killed your wife too. I'm sorry..." He dropped down onto his back as he continued more quietly, barely able to gasp for breath now. "A man in a mask with only one eye hole. Could have been Madara, if he is somehow still alive. Watch out for him. Was powerful, and able to turn himself immaterial at will and teleport himself or others he touched. Had to go solid to attack though. Beat him, but he escaped. Wants to rule the world, and said he would be back for the Kyubi." He then sighed as the last of his energy left him and his eyes blinked shut as his heart slowed, then stopped.

Hiruzen, meanwhile stood with Naruto in his arms, looking down at both his successor and now also his predecessor with great shock, sorrow, and some fear at Minato's words as he felt as if a great weight had settled onto him. "That isn't good. But at least the Kyubi is safely sealed away again."

But it would turn out that in addition to being an understatement of massive proportions, Hiruzen was not quite accurate in his statement.

* * *

Kurama would have laughed if that wouldn't draw attention that he really didn't need at the moment, so instead he allowed his infant cries to slow as he snuggled closer to the newly reinstated Hokage, gave a few hiccups and as cute a sigh as he could manage.

Kurama had little to do over the past decades other than either dwell on his pain and isolation or think of all the possibilities of what could happen in the future. He had always known he would get free eventually. Afterall, he was an immortal being, and as unpleasant as being sealed was, when sealed by beings of mortal flesh and blood, eventually they would die, or something else would happen allowing him his freedom. But though he spent a good deal of time thinking about how he would get his revenge on those who had dared to do this to him, he also spent quite some time contemplating various ways things could go wrong, including attempts to reseal him.

So this time he had been ready. Kushina and Minato had been arrogant enough to plan what they would do with him right in front of his eyes, apparently not even considering that 'just a demon' might make his own plans. So he had decided upon the best method of dealing with it, which would be to take over the body of the child. He had _not_ anticipated the releasing of the eight gates, which had allowed a massively more powerful pull into the body, as well as a greatly enhanced seal, but even with all of that power, there was a brief moment as his mind brushed past the child's as he entered his body, with all of his chakra being pulled behind the seal. It was in that moment that he separated his mind from his chakra and attacked that mind with his own. He might not be able to use his chakra for such a task, but Minato had been the one to put them both in the same body, and he could put the pure willpower and determination of his ancient mind against little Naruto's.

In another reality where Kurama's soul had just been ripped in half by the god of death, he probably wouldn't have been in a coherent enough state to make the attempt. But in this reality, the full intelligence, cunning, and rage of a centuries old being met that of a confused infant less than an hour old who's only real concern at the moment was his hunger. The result was fairly predictable.

Kurama had heard in some of his wanderings in the centuries before he was first sealed that the Yamanaka Clan called it Catastrophic Mind Death, and one of their jutsu attempted exactly what he had just done. It had seemed odd to him when he had heard of it though. Wouldn't all 'mind death' be catastrophic? Regardless, it effectively killed the person, allowing their soul to leave the body normally, but left a fully functional and living body behind, at least as long as someone saw to the body's basic needs.

But for his purposes, it meant he had a nice body to possess for as long as he needed it until he could remove the seal. Unfortunately, his plan had originally called for an immediate removal of the seal after his chakra stopped flowing through it and it sealed shut. Since his mind was separated from his chakra and outside the seal, he had predicted he would be able to just remove the seal at will as the current owner of the body in question, recombine with his chakra which was held behind the seal, and be free.

It hadn't turned out like that. In fact, as soon as he had touched the seal deep within his subconscious, he had been blasted back, and felt truly agonizing pain. And coming from someone who had spent decades experiencing what it felt like to have over a dozen massive stakes driven through your body, but being unable to die within what must have been the most hellish seal they could come up with, that was saying something. He supposed it could have been worse though. Given that the seal apparently somehow recognized his mind as linked to his chakra and therefore not supposed to be able to touch the seal regardless of which side he came from, it could have sucked him into the seal to recombine with his chakra leaving a mindless and soulless body with him stuck inside. But he supposed even a seal master of Minato's apparent level couldn't plan for everything.

So clearly that option was out. Kurama considered just 'killing' himself at the earliest opportunity, which generally speaking released the bijuu from a jinchuriki to eventually reform later from what he had heard. But upon looking closer at the seal, he wasn't certain that would work with this one. He really didn't know that much about seals, as he had long looked down on human chakra techniques as pretty worthless before the battle at the Valley of the End between Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, and obviously hadn't had a chance to study them since. But he could at least recognize that this seal was by a massive margin the most complicated and powerful seal he had ever even heard of, much less seen.

There wasn't any way to be sure at this point, but there was an actual possibility that this thing would kill even him along with the host body if it died. So it looked like this was going to be a longer term thing than originally planned, but it wasn't all bad. This would be a good opportunity to learn more about those human techniques, and that was a pretty high priority at this point. Especially sealing. Hopefully he could get the legendary Uzumaki sealing techniques, since he was apparently Uzumaki by blood now. Then he could possibly figure out a method of removing the seal, and maybe even a way to prevent being sealed in the future.

Also, there was something...strange with his chakra. During his long enslavement, he had contemplated exactly why the Sharingan hypnotism techniques were so effective on bijuu. It didn't seem like it should be. Genjutsu in general wasn't generally effective on them simply because their massive and potent chakra washed away the effects before they could take hold most of the time. But why would the Sharingan's hypnotism be so unbreakable when a simple human could shrug it off with a reasonable degree of willpower.

His conclusion had been that it had something to do with the remaining...taint, he supposed it could be said, of the Juubi which remained a part of the Bijuu's chakra to this day. The chakra itself remained filled with a sort of malignant rage which infected the mind of even the Bijuu. After centuries of living with it, he didn't really even notice it anymore, and just sort of coasted along in the currents of rage and hatred without letting them actually control him. But it seemed probable even though the full nine tails of that chakra couldn't control his actions anymore, they would likely create the opening that hypnotism of the sort the Sharingan produced could take advantage of, with a sufficiently skilled user.

So now that he suddenly didn't have that force flowing through him for the first time in centuries, he felt very strange, actually. If he could figure out how to maintain the potency and power of his bijuu chakra, while duplicating this odd lack of unbridled rage, he would remove one of his very few actual weaknesses.

On the down side though, he was stuck in a worthless human body. _Especially_ worthless as a baby. And he didn't care what the stupidly optimistic Minato thought, there was no way that most people were going to see him as a hero. Even if they did mistakenly believe that he wasn't really the Kyubi, which he doubted many would. Kurama had far too much experience with the natural desire humans had to blame anyone else for their misfortune and hate all that is different to think they wouldn't treat him like the lowest trash. The Hokage seemed like he was convinced Kurama was completely trapped behind the seal though, so as long as he played his role well, he should be protected from significant bodily harm, at least. And what did he care if the stupid humans tried to isolate or insult him?

He also did seem to still have a tiny trickle of his bijuu chakra, also known as youki, leaking through the seal and into his chakra system though. That would be very beneficial, and it seemed likely that the trickle would slowly increase as the years passed. Currently it was too little to do much with. But it was still _his_ chakra, the same chakra that had effectively been his body for centuries, so he had full control over it, small as it was. And it was just enough to channel into his useful Uzumaki cells to further improve that potent lifeforce bloodline Uzumaki's had and give him significantly further improved regeneration. It was also enough to force build ups and then flood his chakra coils regularly, constantly forcing them to grow to highly abnormal levels for his age. By the time he reached adulthood, if he stayed in this body that long, he would have chakra reserves dozens of times larger than even the most powerful of Kages without even touching his youki if he kept up consciously using this method. Even other jinchuriki wouldn't have nearly the chakra reserves he should be able to manage, since their youki was just a constant trickle they had no fine control over to improve and optimize the process of stretching his chakra coils and concentrating his human chakra.

Also, it was enough youki to channel to his ears, nose, or eyes to give him the incredible senses he had once enjoyed, though it would probably turn his eyes red and slitted while he maintained the flow of chakra, so that wasn't something he should do around others. It was the greatest benefit though, as it provided eyes that much like the Sharingan that would pick up every detail perfectly, see chakra, and process information much more quickly, making it seem like things moved in slow motion. Unfortunately his eyes lacked the predictive ability, copying ability, and hypnotism ability of the Sharingan. Still, they would come in quite useful if he could find a way to cover them up. Perhaps eventually a genjutsu or just sunglasses would work. He would have to do some experiments later for the best ways to handle it.

He would also have to work with his natural sensor abilities. He had always been a naturally talented sensor, as all Bijuu were to some extent, given their natural connection with the nature energies around them. But he had never really bothered to develop the ability much. When he had a body that couldn't be killed and could absorb any damage any sort of ambush might give, there hadn't seemed to be much point. Now that was certainly no longer the case, so the importance of always knowing where people were around him, or if someone was preparing a jutsu to use against him, was greatly increased.

So he should have plenty to do until he could get someone to start training him in ninja techniques, but for now he settled down, determined to make sure never to slip up in his act. He would act the human jinchuriki 100% of the time without fail. Until he was too powerful to control or kill, there was no other safe option, and doing anything at any time that couldn't be explained as reasonable for his human persona risked death. It was impossible to be completely certain you were not being watched at any given time, so there couldn't ever be any real evidence that he wasn't just a human. He would also have to work to make his mental image of himself that of the human Naruto too, just in case a Yamanaka ever got curious.

He was the Kyubi no Yoko. The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. The greatest of the Bijuu. His name was Kurama. But to the world, he would be known as Naruto Uzumaki. And he would be free. One way or the other. His eyes closed as a small smile appeared and he drifted off to sleep.

**A/N:** So that's the first chapter. Or prologue, I suppose. Hopefully the fact that I had the protagonist of this story basically murder the title character as a baby at the very beginning of the story won't turn people off. Even if this Naruto is technically actually the Kyubi, he's still going to be closer in personality to cannon!Naruto than some fanfics I have read(and far less evil than in many I have read too, for that matter), and of course as far as anyone else is aware, he will just be Naruto. Besides, the only reason cannon!Naruto is anything other than a very average ninja with a decent ability to think on his feet and improvise, which almost makes up for his total lack of ability to plan ahead, is because of the Kyubi's power - either directly (by drawing on the Kyubi's chakra) or indirectly(massive chakra reserves, and the things he can get with massive chakra reserves such as fast training from shadow clones, etc). Why not just take that to its logical end and literally have the Kyubi fighting in Naruto's place.

Anyway, hopefully I provided a bit of an introduction to how Kurama thinks at this point in this story. Honestly he has a fair amount of reason at this point to hate humans given how they have pretty consistently treated him through the past decades. From Madara to Kushina and Minato, everyone just tries to enslave and use him at every turn. Can barely blame the guy for keeping up his rampage through Konoha even after Madara's control was broken, especially since he was being attacked at that point and mostly just defended himself.

I will almost always refer to him as Naruto from now on. Even within his own mind, Kurama will generally refer to himself as Naruto to keep that habit.

As I'm sure people noticed, the branch point at which this fanfic changes from cannon is Minato learning to open the eight gates (I don't see why all high level ninja don't. Are they just lazy? The damage from opening just a couple gates seems minor (compared to losing and getting killed, anyway) and gives a huge advantage. Open some gates and Minato goes from the fastest ninja to ever live to practically deity level speed. Or if put in a situation in which you are going to die anyway, opening all eight gates is the ultimate suicide technique too). Anyway, this change leads to him being able to seal the entire chakra of the Kyubi into Naruto rather than just half (not a smart idea in retrospect, but not something he could have predicted), which allows Kurama to overwhelm Naruto's mind and take over, though all of the Kyubi's chakra is still locked away behind the seal. All other changes in this story will flow from that one change, which will cause growing ripples across the entire story as we progress.

For readers of my other story, A Sage Among Wizards, I have not abandoned it. Some real life stuff came up that made me take a break from it, and just as I was getting back into it, my harddrive died, making me lose all of my chapter outlines and pieces of future chapters I had already written. It was kind of depressing, and I didn't feel like recreating all of that work at the time, but I have started to redo all of this, and should have the next chapter of that series out in the not too distant future.

And finally, please review! I don't care if it's just a short, "I liked it," a detailed breakdown of what you think I did wrong (and hopefully can improve on), or even just informing me of a grammar or spelling mistake, I would appreciate it. But please no flames. I don't mind criticism as long as it is constructive, but a simple, "This is the worst thing ever written," or "You suck, die in a fire" will be ignored.


	2. Growing Up Human

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters from the Naruto universe. I am making no money off of this fanfiction.

**A/N: **Thank you for all those who reviewed and are interested in this fic.

It has been pointed out by a couple people that apparently this fic (or at least the first chapter) is very similar to another fanfiction, The Empty Cage. I have not read, or even heard of that story prior to those reviews, so I am definitely not copying anything or am even being inspired by that fanfiction. In fact, I have decided to purposefully not ever read that story to make sure that I do not subconsciously copy ideas. I'm sure it's a great story, but I would prefer my story to just stand on its own. I neither want to accidentally copy it, nor feel like I have to throw out what are legitimately my own ideas just because they happen to be similar to things in that story, and I'm afraid of being accused of copying. So if there are further similarities as we go, I guess it's just a case of great minds thinking alike.

**Chapter 2: Growing Up Human**

Naruto would never understand how the villagers thought. He had spent seven years contemplating it, but still couldn't figure it out. Certainly he understood why they were angry at him. He had destroyed their homes and killed their family. It made perfect sense that they feel rage towards him for that, especially since they had no way of knowing that the attack had not originally been his idea. They were even intelligent enough to recognize that not even the much boasted about sealing skills of the Fourth Hokage would be able to truly repress a being of his might within the body of an innocent baby. The best that could be hoped for was effectively giving him a human form and locking away his full power for a time.

So they were intelligent enough to recognize that fact, which was apparently too difficult for a certain old man to see, not that he didn't appreciate the Hokage's protection of him. But then many of the villagers turned around and responded to this understanding with the most foolish of all possible responses. In fact, there were only two rational responses that could be made to finding out that the demon who nearly destroyed your village and killed so many was in the village trapped in the body of a young child. They should have either immediately killed him, making sure he was dead, or attempted to cultivate his good will for when he inevitably regained his power.

The villagers did neither. The exact response varied, but always seemed to be based in some bizarre determination to get on his bad side without doing anything to prevent him from taking his revenge some day.

Many just ignored him and talked quietly behind his back. These he could ignore in return and be done with it. Afterall, he was the Nine-Tailed Fox, and the greatest of all Demons. He didn't need the attention of a bunch of worthless humans, and their opinions of him, spoken or otherwise, meant less than nothing to him.

Some actively antagonized him, but in minor ways. Things like refusing service at stores or overcharging him for low quality goods. These he could deal with now by applying his natural skills as a trickster and prankster. Most of the pranks were pretty minor and could never be proved to be his fault. Not that it stopped anyone from blaming him, since he got the blame for practically everything that went wrong in the village regardless of if he was really at fault or not.

Then there were those who were on his List. The word was capitalized in his head whenever he thought it. Well, technically there were two Lists, but one was very short, and the other rapidly growing in number. Because as the villagers should have known if they had done even a little research on Kitsunes, a Kitsune _always_ repaid their debts. That meant that those like the Hokage and a very few others who had protected him and treated him well would have their generosity, misguided thought it might be, repaid some day. It equally meant that a Kitsune would always see vengeance done for slights against him. Kitsunes were beings of fire and lightning, and their anger could burn for longer than this pitiful village would exist. As the greatest of Kitsunes, he had a reputation to uphold, if nothing else.

Of course some of the natural born Kitsunes protested that he wasn't _really_ a Kitsune, not having a true physical body and all. But to him, that was an inane argument. Since the Sage of the Six Paths could create anything out of nothing, and he had based his creation on a Kitsune, he was one. He had a Kitsune's natural appearance, instincts, and abilities. What did it matter that he was _technically_ a being made out of the materialized chakra of the Juubi. That just made him the most powerful of the Kitsune, and their natural leader, regardless of what they thought. Certainly it didn't mean he didn't follow Kitsune laws and traditions. If anything, it made that even more important.

Not that as he skidded around a corner and took off into a sprint once again to escape the mob chasing him was the right time to really be contemplating this. Or any sort of contemplation, really. Especially when the mob in question was waving around clubs, torches and...yes, that was actually a pitchfork. Now most people in such a situation wouldn't have a chance to really take in details like that. But even apart from the humor such a thing would bring if he wasn't the target of the mob, it was important that he memorize every face in this crowd. He made equally certain to memorize every chakra signature.

Because he had just reached a dead end, and there would come a reckoning some day for the savage beating that was sure to follow. Those who just watched and jeered would be pranked with the more savage variety. The sort that caused humiliation of the level to which the person would be afraid to leave their house for weeks. The kind that ruined social standing and made everyone lose all respect for them, but at least left them alive and with all their limbs still attached.

But those who participated in the beating...those who beat his seven year old body with their clubs and kicked with their steel-toed boots...those who burned him with their firebrands and cut him with their knives...They would one day wish they had found the courage to finish the job, regardless of what they knew the Hokage would do to those who actually dared kill him. One day they would die at his hands. Unpleasantly.

Because Kitsune always repaid what was given to them.

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi was not a young man any longer by any measure, but rarely did he feel as old as he did today. It was a single day after the seventh anniversary of the Kyubi's defeat, but today, all that stood for to him was yet another failure of Konoha to respect the dying wishes of the hero they venerated the day before. And his own failure to protect the son of both one of the greatest heroes the Leaf ever had and a personal friend.

It had been almost twenty-four hours since Naruto's attack, and word had finally reached him that the boy had regained consciousness. He would have to see what condition he was in though. Even if the Kyubi seemed to give Naruto greatly enhanced healing, the report on Naruto's condition last night had been among the most depressing reading he had ever experienced. And that included hundreds of reports about ninja he had sent to their deaths over the years. At least they knew the risks they were taking and had taken them voluntarily.

He nodded firmly towards the ANBU stationed outside of Naruto's hospital room - a necessity to prevent any 'accidents' from the hospital staff. He then had to repress a burst of killing intent from the glare a passing nurse gave towards the doorway to Naruto's room. If her expression was anything to go by, she would be first in line to arrange an 'accident' for Naruto if she were able. He truly could not understand how a woman could bow and give a respectful smile to him one moment, then turn her head a few degrees to give a glare in direct contradiction to his instructions for Naruto's treatment the next.

"So Naruto is awake now?" Sarutobi asked the unmoving ANBU.

The man quickly and respectfully responded, "Yes, Hokage-sama. The boy woke up about an hour ago."

"Has he..." Sarutobi trailed off, not quite sure how to ask, but finally just saying, "said anything about what happened?"

The ANBU shook his head and replied, "Nothing about what happened. He asked to see you, and asked how long he would have to stay in the hospital this time, but didn't say anything else."

Sarutobi sighed dejectedly. The fact that a seven year old would immediately be asking how long he would be hospitalized _this _time upon recovering consciousness was just a further depressing thought. How could the villagers look at that innocent little child and see only the Fox? At least most of the ninja, who knew at least a little of how sealing functioned were, for the most part, willing to accept his word that the seal kept the Fox contained within Naruto and was not Naruto himself. They mostly just treated Naruto with disinterest, which while not exactly ideal, was certainly preferable to how even the more passive of the villagers treated him.

"Alright. Thank you Owl."

He nodded towards the ANBU, and entered the hospital room, to be immediately greeted with an enthusiastic, "hey Ojii-san" from Naruto, which brought an amused chuckle from the Hokage.

"So how are you feeling now, Naruto?"

Naruto gave him a look as if he was wondering if Hiruzen was an idiot, but eventually he did answer, "Not so great Ojii-san. Those people hurt me pretty bad. The doctor says I'm healing up pretty good, but it still hurts a lot. Less than last night though."

Hiruzen nodded with a tired sigh and replied. "Yes, I am very sorry about that Naruto. I had someone watching you, but it seems they were called away at the last minute for a nearby disturbance." He was also looking into exactly why that had happened to see to what level this had been planned, but that wasn't something that needed to be discussed with Naruto.

"Well, did the bad people at least get arrested and thrown in jail, or whatever you do to people who beat on kids for no reason?"

Hiruzen hesitated, but eventually responded, "Well, we caught a fair number of them as they were leaving when the ANBU found you. But it looks like we will have to let many of them go, unfortunately. They fall under the jurisdiction of the civilian council, and apparently they are all claiming that they were not actually involved in the beating, and just happened by and watched. And since none of them are willing to testify against the others, it doesn't look like they are going to really be charged."

Naruto frowned heavily as he angrily responded, "Well, I saw them. I could testify against them. They should be punished for what they did. If they don't, they will just try it again, even I know that."

"I promise I will do what I can to see justice done Naruto, as well as make sure that this isn't repeated, but there just isn't a lot I can do. I'm sure that the civilian council will just say that you are an unreliable witness...due to your age and other factors. I'm very sorry. You don't need to worry about it though. I will make sure you are more carefully protected to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Naruto sighed and reluctantly nodded, though his reluctance was definitely very understandable, given the situation. "You mean because of the Kyubi-teme?"

At this point Hiruzen choked, which was impressive since he wasn't even drinking anything. He also stood up from his chair fast enough to knock it over and said, "What do you mean 'because of the Kyubi'? Did someone say something?" At this point the shock began to fade and anger took its place.

But Naruto just started laughing, eventually burying his head into the pillows on the bed as he continued laughing hard enough to be painful on his still healing wounds. Eventually his chuckles faded, and he grabbed his stitched up side. "Ow...Umm, no one really said anything, unless you call all the people who call me 'Demon' or 'Kyubi Brat' all the time saying something. But last night, when I was knocked out, I woke up in some kind of sewer thing. I thought I had just been dumped there, at first, but after I wandered around for a while, I ended up in front of some huge cage with a seal paper thing on the door.

So I thought that was weird enough to check out, but when I got closer, this huge fox thing jumps out of the darkness and starts growling at me. It was kind of scary, but I don't think he could affect anything outside of the cage, so I just kept my distance and asked what was going on. It took a little while because that bastard liked to spend more time threatening me than telling me what was happening, but he eventually told me about how he got sealed into me, causing all the crap I have gone through in my life." At this point, he looked a combination of extremely annoyed and a little angry. "Why didn't you tell me though Jiji? You always said you didn't know why all the people hated me."

Hiruzen slowly straightened his chair and dropped down onto it, trying to get over his shock at this sudden and unexpected revelation. "So you actually talked to it? Can you hear it now, or just when you were unconscious?"

"Yeah, I talked to it when I was knocked out, but I haven't heard anything since. I don't really know how I got down there into the sewer thing anyway. Maybe I have to be knocked out for it to work? Whatever. Anyway, why did you lie to me?"

Hiruzen looked down at his lap in shame at this. It was one of the many things about Naruto's situation that he had always felt bad about, but there hadn't really been any better way to handle the situation. "I'm sorry Naruto. I wanted to tell you the truth, but you are still very young. I wanted you to be able to have as normal a childhood as possible, under the circumstances. I didn't want you to feel there was a huge burden hanging over your head. Also, I wanted to wait until I was sure you were old enough to understand what happened. You do understand that you are not actually the Fox, right? You are the prison which keeps the Kyubi from getting free and attacking us again like it did seven years ago."

Naruto gripped the sheets tightly as he angrily replied, "Yeah, of course I get that. I talked to the fox, so I can't be the fox. I saw the bars of his cage, for that matter. I don't really understand all that sealing stuff for how you can put a mountain sized fox inside my stomach, but I know I'm not him. You could have told me earlier though. At least then I would know why all those people don't like me. You not telling me didn't make them dislike me less, or not tell their kids to avoid me so I have no friends. Or not get me kicked out of the orphanage, or any of the other stuff that happens to me. I wouldn't call that a normal childhood."

Hiruzen replied with a deep sadness. "No, I wouldn't call it a normal childhood either. It seems I keep trying to do what I think is best for you, but it just comes to naught. All I can do is once again say I am sorry."

Naruto sighed deeply, then looked up at the Hokage and loosened his fists full of sheets. "It's ok, Ojii-san. I wish things were better sometimes, but at least you try to help. That's more than almost anyone else does for me." He then hesitated with clear nervousness coming onto his face before he eventually continued, "The Fox told me a couple other things too. Mostly about my parents. I don't know if I can actually trust anything he says though. He told me some stupid story about how Madara Uchiha made him attack Konoha. As if I would believe that. Even I know that Madara Uchiha died back in that battle at the Valley of the End. So he will say anything to make me trust him, probably to try and get me to remove that seal. As if I would be that stupid. But...well, he said that my parents were the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and someone named Kushina Uzumaki. Is...is that true?"

Hiruzen's face throughout this whole conversation had grown steadily paler and paler as he listened, especially to the Fox's apparent confirmation of the identity of his wife's murderer, and the cause of the Kyubi's attack. Though he wasn't exactly pleased with the Kyubi giving Naruto information on his parents which might cause immense problems should it ever get out. But he couldn't lie again. Not tonight. "Yes...actually that is true. I'm sorry once again that I didn't tell you before. But please understand that you cannot tell anyone about who your parents were. Especially the identity of your father. I know this might be difficult for you, especially as I know people will sometimes insult your parentage, not knowing the truth. But your father had many enemies. Enemies who would want to kill any child of his if they knew of your existence. And some of these enemies could very possibly make that happen, no matter how well we try and defend you." He decided not to address the issue of Madara with Naruto. There was really no good reason to make him trust the Kyubi more. Nothing good could come from that.

Naruto nodded slowly. "Yeah, I understand...I would still like to know more about them, even if I can't tell anyone." He had a hopeful look directed at the Hokage.

"Of course, Naruto. I would be glad to tell you more about them. I am actually a bit relieved that you know now so that I can tell you more. I know that I always told you that your parents were heroes and that they loved you with all of their heart, but I'm sure it was difficult to believe that when I couldn't tell you anything about them or why they were not here for you. But I spoke with your parents about you many times before you were born. There was nothing in this world they were looking forward more than seeing you born, and nothing they loved more either." He gave a kind smile as he rested his hand on Naruto's shoulder, trying to be as reassuring as possible.

Naruto now had tears running from his eyes and gave a sniffle as he tried to scrub away his tears with the back of his hand and look up at the Hokage again. "But if they loved me so much, why did they put the Kyubi in me? Why make my life so much more painful and difficult than it would have been even if you couldn't tell people I was the son of Konoha's greatest hero. Why would they do that to someone they loved so much?"

At this Hiruzen's eyes became wet as well and he leaned down to give Naruto a comforting embrace, which he clung to tightly. "Oh Naruto, I know it has been hard. But Minato and Kushina never wanted that for you. Minato's last order as Hokage was that you be seen as a hero for the burden you bear. For what you protect us all from. The villagers were just too set in their hatred and mistaken beliefs to listen. But if there was any other way of dealing with the Kyubi, I'm sure they would have. But someone had to be the host or all of Konoha and everyone in it would have been destroyed, and how can a Hokage ask another family to give up their child for something that they will not do. But they did love you. They wanted the best for you. I know that isn't what life has delivered, but they did the best they could for you. And I know that if you keep trying, things will get better."

Naruto slowly nodded, and after a few minutes of taking comfort in Hiruzen's embrace before pulling back and saying. "I think I understand Ojii-san. I still wish they had picked another child though. Someone with parents who could have protected and loved them despite this burden, but I guess being Hokage isn't as easy as I thought it would be." But now with more strength and enthusiasm, he continued, "Well, that's ok. I'll just have to prove them all wrong. Now that I know why they all dislike me so much, I know I just have to show them all that I'm not the Kyubi. I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'll be the greatest Hokage ever. Even better than my father. Then everyone will see me as a hero like the Forth…like my father wanted"

"I believe you will Naruto. Your father first said he was going to be Hokage at about your age, and he did it. You have that same determination and Will of Fire. You can do it too, if you keep to it and are willing to work hard for your goal." Hiruzen gave the child a bright smile, glad that Naruto was bouncing back so quickly from such huge revelations.

Naruto grinned widely in response. "Yeah, I know. Oh, and the Fox said I should ask you about something else too. He said I should get any clan or family scrolls for the Namikaze and Uzumaki to study. He said he didn't know much about my dad, other than that he could apparently summon massive toads and teleport, but that the Uzumaki were famous for their fuinjutsu and kenjutsu. And he said that if he had to be trapped in a container, he refused for it to be a _weak_ container, so he wanted me go start training in those. He also said I should see if you had some kind of legendary swords of the Uzumaki Clan. The Kitoshio, or something like that? I hate following the advice of that stupid fox, but that does sound kind of awesome." Naruto was clearly very excited about the prospect of secret clan scrolls and awesome legendary swords at this point.

Hiruzen laughed and replied, "Well, I do actually have the Uzumaki scrolls. Your father never really wrote much about his techniques, and he wasn't from an actual clan, but at least you can have what is left of your mother's legacy, since you know about her anyway. A lot of it will be fairly advanced though, so it will probably be a while before you are able to understand it. Why don't we set it up so you can come by the Sarutobi compound to read the scrolls or practice them whenever you want? Your apartment isn't the most secure place in the village, and I would hate for those scrolls to be damaged or lost." Of course it was probably best not to directly refer to the fact that his apartment was broken into and trashed fairly regularly. After all, the boy was finally in a better mood now.

"As for the swords...Well, your mother was fairly well known for wielding one of them, an O-katana called the Kirushio. While she wasn't as famous as your father, she was a well known A-rank ninja, and actually had the highest number of kills for a Konoha kunoichi during the Third Shinobi World War. It's probably best not to link you too closely to her either unless necessary for a while either. Besides, that sword would be a little big for you at this point. How about you take the wakizashi of the pair, the Miharushio. It would fit you better for now, and you could at least practice both of the Uzumaki Kenjutsu styles with it."

Naruto frowned in confusion. "What do you mean by both styles?"

"Well, as you said, the Uzumaki clan head's blades are somewhat legendary. And like many of the legendary blades in this world, they are more than just well crafted swords. They were created in the early days of the Clan by an incredibly skilled smith and seal master out of pure chakra conducting metal. The O-katana, the Kirushio, is a long blade that ripples with red carved seals all along it, while the Miharushio has blue seals. But these seals do several things in addition to giving a unique appearance. First, they make the blades almost impossible to damage. They never have to be sharpened, and they will never break. This also allowed the smith who created them to give them an edge which would be impossible, or at least impractical for any other blade. But because they cannot chip or break, he was able to give them a blade as sharp as it was possible for the smith to get them. In fact, they are thought to be the naturally sharpest blades in existence. Only the Kiba blades are said to surpass their cutting power, and that is only because they naturally channel lightning chakra.

And secondly, the seals allow the blades to bond with someone of Uzumaki blood, and allow that person to call the blades to their hand at a moment's notice. Of course the further the blades are from the wielder, the more chakra and time it takes for them to appear, so you would still carry them with you. But this ability gave birth to two separate sword styles using these weapons.

First, the Uzumaki Oshinagasu style, which is a very defensive style using the wakizashi. It uses almost no attacks, but just blocks and counters, forcing the enemy to circle the user, looking for openings that never appear, while allowing for quick counter attacks that take advantage of the shorter length of the wakizashi. It is also a good style for defending against large numbers of less skilled enemies. Second, there is the Uzumaki Taguru style, which is a very aggressive style using the O-katana that relies on constantly pressing the opponent, circling them and forcing them off balance. This was the style your mother mastered and almost exclusively used.

But because of the ability to summon the swords to your hands in an instant, true masters of the style would do things like throw or drop the blade they were using and call the other to their hands, instantly shifting styles and blade type to keep their enemy off balance and confused. It was a very complicated but effective and strong style of Kenjutsu if someone was sufficiently skilled with both styles and both blades.

But for now, how about you practice with the wakizashi, and when you are big enough and skilled enough, I will give you the O-katana to bond with as well. How does that sound?"

Naruto grinned almost manically and responded with a voice full of excitement. "That sounds _awesome_! I promise I will get really good with them! I won't let my ancestors down. You will be handing over the second sword in no time!"

Hiruzen smiled with amusement. He was glad that as horrible as this whole situation had started, maybe some good would come out of it. Of course he was still a little nervous that Naruto would blurt out his parentage at some point, but he seemed to understand the importance of keeping that secret. And now that he knew, this was a way to help Naruto reach his potential that not even the biased Civilian Council could possibly object to, even if they did find out. But there was still one more shock waiting for him from Naruto.

"Oh, by the way Jiji, I have thought about it, and I want to drop out of the academy."

Hiruzen's jaw dropped open as he stared at the boy in shock as he sputtered at the child. "Wait, what? But don't you want to be the Hokage? You have to be a ninja to become the Hokage, and you have to go to the academy for that. You have only been in the academy for a term and a half at this point."

At this point Naruto clearly couldn't hold it in anymore and started clutching his stomach as he laughed and rolled around in his bed. Finally, he calmed down, and grimaced as he held his still healing wounds once again. "Ouch. Still hurts. You should have seen your face though Ojii-san. I need to start carrying a camera." He shook his head, still grinning. "But I just want to drop out for a little while though. All the kids there hate me because their parents told them to. And the academy instructors encourage it and give me a hard time too, if not as much as the civilian kids. But I heard there are a bunch of clan kids the same age as me. And I have noticed that the clans tend to treat me with indifference, rather than the active hatred of most of the civilians, so if I wait another year and a half to re-enter the academy with all those clan kids at the normal academy starting age, I might actually be able to make some friends."

"Ah. Well, ok. If that is what you want, I don't have a problem with it. What will you do over the next year and a half though?" He did frown slightly at the thought though. Every time he heard more about Naruto's life, it pained him and emphasized his own failure to protect the boy. Especially when Naruto said it in such a casual way, as if that was just the way life was, and it was normal for him to have to try and find a way around it to even have a single friend.

Naruto grinned happily and replied, "Oh, there is lots to do. I can study those Uzumaki scrolls, and get really good with that sword you are going to give me, and maybe start learning some of that sealing stuff. It sounds pretty interesting. Anything that can lock up something massive like the Kyubi inside someone's stomach has got to be pretty awesome. Also, we unlocked our chakra last term and have been working on the Transformation Jutsu this term. If I can get really good with that, I can just walk around looking like someone else and be treated like a normal person most of the time. I can go into stores and get charged normal prices for actually high quality stuff, and not get thrown out. By the time I go back to the academy, I will be way ahead of everyone and can show them how awesome I am!"

Hiruzen chuckled as he responded. "I am sure you will Naruto. If that is all though, I'm afraid I do have to be going now. I'm not sure I can handle any more shocks either for that matter. When you are released from the hospital, come by my office and I can set you up to be allowed entrance into the Sarutobi compound, as well as giving you a study and some training space to look at and practice with your clan scrolls. No one else is using that space much anyway these days."

Naruto grinned widely. "Nah, that's it for now. Thanks for all this Ojii-san." His grin then did mostly fade and a pensive look came over his face. "Do you have any pictures of my parents you could get for me when I come over though? And maybe you could tell me some stories about them when you get a chance. I would like to know more about them. More than just what is in the history books, anyway."

"Of course, Naruto. I would be glad to."

Naruto's happy gin was restored at this point as he thanked Hiruzen again and waved goodbye as he took his leave.

Hiruzen shook his head in amazement at Naruto as he walked out of the room, nodding to the Owl ANBU as he left. That boy truly was amazing. He seemed to combine his mother's enthusiasm towards life and his father's determination. Even after one of the most difficult childhoods he could imagine, he still found things to be joyous about. Certainly he could tell that Naruto still had anger towards the villagers who attacked him, but that was reasonable. At least he hadn't turned out like many other Jinchuriki he had read heard reports about in other villages, hating everyone around them.

And as much as he hated to admit it, Naruto's idea of mastering the Transformation jutsu was a good one. He probably wouldn't get good enough with it to fool ninja, but the ninja of the village were generally not involved in any of the actual attacks against Naruto. Most had at least a little understanding of sealing, and so better understood that Naruto was the prison of the Kyubi, not the Kyubi itself. And the rest at least knew how to follow orders and wouldn't hurt someone under the Hokage's protection. And even an academy level Henge would be enough to avoid notice from the civilians who would attack him. So while he was sure this wouldn't fix all the problems in Naruto's life, hopefully at least further attacks like the one of last night could be avoided.

* * *

Naruto grinned as he flopped back onto his bed after the Hokage left the room. He was always fun to mess with. Still, he couldn't help but be thankful for the Hokage's protection and assistance. It didn't really matter that Hiruzen's thoughts of Naruto being something similar to an adopted grandson was based on a lie and manipulations from Naruto to consistently try and encourage his feelings of guilt and obligation. He had still helped him a great deal through the years, and looked likely to help him even more in the future. So he did hope to one day repay that kindness.

Maybe if he did someday become Hokage, he would _not_ destroy all of Konoha in repayment of the debt, and instead only kill those who had directly physically harmed him instead. The whole wanting to be Hokage thing had started as part of his mask. It fit the Naruto he was trying to portray, as it was only natural for a child denied any form of acknowledgement or respect to seek out the most acknowledged and respected position in the village. It was also a goal that reinforced the idea that he was loyal to Konoha in the minds of those willing to at least accept that as a possibility, and finally it was a good way to explain his drive to make himself stronger without worrying too many people.

But what had really clinched the goal as something to pursue was just how great of a practical joke that would be. He broke down into laughter every time he imagined what everyone's faces would be like after becoming the Hokage, getting his face up on the mountain, then announcing that he was the Kyubi all along afterall, and he was leaving now. Maybe put up signs in everyone's yards that read 'Congratulations! You made your most hated enemy the leader of your village! Whoops', or something along those lines. Possibly redo the Hokage monument from Naruto's face to his fox form's face if he could manage earth manipulation of that level by that point. He doubted anyone had ever committed to a practical joke of that sort of scope before, and that was a good enough reason to do it all by itself.

Oh well, for now he was just thankful his revelation that he was supposedly occasionally in contact with the Kyubi had gone so well. It had been something he was worried about. From what he knew of actual Jinchurikis, his story was plausible, and it gave him the opportunity to use information or suggestions Naruto had no way of normally getting, but the Kyubi would have access to. So it was a necessary risk to take. Not to mention he reinforced the actually true fact that apparently Madara Uchiha was out there with plans for Konoha and him, which hopefully would help the Hokage better prepare to combat him until Naruto was powerful enough. But as important as it had been to take this chance, it had still been a little risky.

If the Hokage had taken it badly, it could have caused major damage to their relationship and made him suspicious of future actions, something that could cause massive problems. But instead, he had accepted his words as the truth, and possibly even felt even closer to Naruto now that he felt he could be a little more open with him, in private, at least. That had been the reaction he had been hoping for, and was why Naruto had planned to wait until the Hokage was feeling at his most guilty about Naruto before making the revelation to weigh the odds in his favor as much as possible. He was pleased it had worked out so well.

Now he was set to improve his ability to protect himself with the Uzumaki scroll's techniques, and more importantly, began down the path of mastering seals. That was vital if he ever wanted to have his chakra free of this seal. Though that would have to wait until further progress had been made on the Henge jutsu. As he had been hoping, it was the key to reacquiring his natural Kitsune's ability to shape shift. All he had to do was add a tiny bit of his youki with his human chakra when he used the technique, and instead of a temporary easily detectable change of form, he did a real and permanent physical transformation. To change back, he effectively had to complete another transformation to what his form was before. But that meant that not only could he keep his new forms for long periods, but also that it was almost totally undetectable as a technique at all.

Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at it yet. He had the natural ability of a Kitsune to pull it off, but not enough control over his human chakra yet to make convincing transformations. If he had, he would have been able to hide from the mob the previous night, which was one of the reasons it was such a high priority to him. A week or two of constant practice should be enough to allow him to change into similar forms, at least, and he could just hide out in one of the forests for that long, at least.

But eventually, he would be able to manage it well enough to fool anyone, which would make a lot of things far easier for him. Not only would he be able to avoid beatings and get normal prices for normal goods, he would also be able to do things like pose as a chunin and go to the ninja library for public techniques, chakra control exercises, and all the other help he wasn't likely to be able to get with his own face.

Of course there were a few limitations he was already aware of. The first and most important was that he needed to learn to suppress his own chakra. If someone could sense his chakra as the chakra of Naruto Uzumaki, it didn't matter how undetectable and perfect his transformation was.

The second was that he could only do so much for his physical fitness. While he could transform his body into an extremely fit adult's body, which would be much stronger than his current child's body, after some experimentation and research, it turned out that most of a ninja's strength and speed didn't directly come from the size of their muscles. Instead, as chakra was used while working out those muscles, the chakra circulation system slowly bonded into those muscles, making them potentially much, much more powerful than the muscle's physical size would suggest. And it seemed the one thing he couldn't transform was his chakra circulatory system, including his tenketsu and chakra coils, though he could move them around. So he would have to work out like any other ninja to become significantly physically strong.

And related to that issue was the final limitation he had discovered so far. He had hoped to be able to heal any injury just by transforming himself back into his undamaged form. However, because he couldn't transform his chakra system, it was limited how much he could do this. While minor surface wounds such as cuts or bruises could be transformed away easily, deeper wounds tended to cause damage to the chakra circulatory system as well as to flesh. This both made it difficult to do transformations in that area at all, given the difficulties of moving chakra to the damaged area, and it meant that even if he was able to, the damage to his chakra system would remain, which was almost as crippling as physical damage to his flesh anyway. There were a few things he could do, such as create new blood to prevent himself from dying from blood loss, and possibly at least sealing wounds shut, but for the most part he would have to rely on his fast, but not instantaneous, Uzumaki healing.

But perhaps he would discover new ways of using the Transformation jutsu with more experience. Regardless, he was certain the next year and a half would produce a great deal of improvement. He was one large step closer to completing many of his goals.

**A/N: **

**Kitoshio**: The Returning Tides. Name for the blades traditionally used by the head of the Uzumaki clan.

**Kirushio**: The Killing Tide, or The Cutting Tide. An O-katana with a three foot blade. One of the two blades which together are known as the Kitoshio.

**Miharushio**: The Guarding Tide. A wakizashi with an eighteen inch blade. One of the two blades which together are known as the Kitoshio.

**Uzumaki Oshinagasu**: The Whirlpool Washes Away. One of the Uzumaki Kenjutsu styles. Very defensive, and generally used with a wakizashi.

**Uzumaki Taguru**: The Whirlpool Pulls In. One of the Uzumaki Kenjutsu styles. Very offensive, and generally used with a katana.

**Henge**: Transformation technique. An E-rank ninjutsu which channels a constant flow of chakra to physically change the user into someone or something else. This academy technique can be detected by those with any chakra sensing ability, and will be disrupted by any physical damage.

Next chapter we will skip forward about a year and a half to Naruto's re-entrance into the academy with the rest of the future rookie nine.

And finally, please review! I don't care if it's just a short, "I liked it," a detailed breakdown of what you think I did wrong (and hopefully can improve on), or even just informing me of a grammar or spelling mistake, I would appreciate it. But please no flames. I don't mind criticism as long as it is constructive, but a simple, "This is the worst thing ever written," or "You suck, don't have children." will be ignored.

Note: Next week I will be updating my other story: A Sage Among Wizards. I will probably be switching back and forth between the two stories for a while, but I should be able to keep fairly regular updates for both stories going.


	3. The Academy Again

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters from the Naruto universe. I am making no money off of this fanfiction.

**A/N:**

Thanks for everyone's reviews. There was a fair amount of criticism for the whole 'mob chases and beats Naruto' cliché. I kind of expected it, as that is one of the most commonly used clichés in Naruto fanfiction. Unfortunately, it was necessary for this story. And I do disagree with many people who said that sort of thing would never happen. Yeah, many fanfiction authors go way overboard and have Naruto be savagely beaten almost daily and raped on Sundays without the Hokage even trying to stop it, but an occasional beating actually does make sense to me. The entire village hates Naruto and wants him to come to harm. That is clear in cannon. And while most of them would be too afraid of punishment or unwilling to break laws to hurt him, just like in all societies, there are always some who will break laws to get what they want.

And with that many people wanting to harm him, it doesn't seem unlikely that every once in a while some would get to him before ANBU. Honestly the only reason I think it wasn't included in canon was because it was an anime/manga targeting pre-teens. You can't really have outright child abuse in that, regardless of if it is realistic or not.

Anyway, it is necessary for some stuff that will take place a while down the road in this particular story, but that will be the only scene like that in the story.

**Chapter 3: The Academy. Again**

Naruto casually walked down the middle of one of the busier streets of Konoha with a wide grin on his face, ignoring all of the glares coming from the villagers he passed. It had been a good year and a half since he had dropped out of the Academy, but the last few months since the Uchiha Massacre, he had been almost unable to stop smiling. The villagers might whine and cry about it, but to him, it was the best thing to happen in Konoha since his release from Kushina's seal.

Ever since he had a chance to really think about it, one of his primary goals to make the best use of his time while he was stuck in a human body was to see if he could destroy the descendents of the Sage of the Six Paths. All of them seemed to have some sort of ability to control Bijuu in some way, so it would be best if they were not around anymore when he was back in his real form. The Senju had the occasional Wood Release user who could suppress youki. The Uzumaki had the occasional user of chakra chains which could contain even him, much less the lesser Bijuu, as well as probably being the only people with strong enough lifeforces to be a jinchuriki of the Kyubi without immediately dying from having that much energy flowing within them. And the Uchiha could control Bijuu with their Sharingan hypnotism ability, though he was still hopeful he would figure out a way around that one.

He felt a little bad about it at times, since the Sage of the Six Paths was the only truly honorable and trustworthy human he had ever met and one of the very few he had ever considered anything approaching a friend. So it sometimes seemed in bad taste to be planning to make sure that all the lines of his descendents ended. But it wasn't his fault that they had all ended up as honorable as a bunch of thieving whores. Of course the Uchiha had always been like that, but it seemed a more recent development for the Senju and Uzumaki.

And even without his involvement at all, it seemed like all the various lines of the Sage of the Six Paths were dying off on their own. First the Uzumaki were mostly destroyed during the Second Shinobi World War. As far as he was aware, this body was the last Uzumaki in existence, so all he had to do was make sure not to have children, though he planned on doing a more thorough search for possible other scattered survivors once he could more freely leave the village. Tsunade was all that remained of the Senju, and as she neither had the Wood Release bloodline, nor was young enough to bear children anymore, that line was effectively already extinct. And now the Uchiha were suddenly reduced from one of the most numerous clans in the village to just three members. Two of which were now missing-nins, so he could even eventually kill them openly and legally. And he could probably arrange an accident or sterilization of Sasuke at some point.

So hearing that one of their own had done most of his work for him had made his past several months. He was tempted to just sterilize this Itachi and let him live for his service, even if he _was_ Uchiha. He had plenty of time to consider it though, since he wasn't remotely ready to face an enemy of that level. His training had gone well over the past year and a half, but not _that_ well. Still, he was well on the way along the path he wished to take.

Not that he had any advanced jutsu or anything like that at this point, but he believed that a strong foundation would help more down the road than trying to rush for 'awesome jutsu' or something similar like a normal eight year old would. So he had spent the past year and a half working on creating that strong foundation for future shinobi skills. Mostly this had consisted of physical training, practicing with his sword studying the Uzumaki styles, and as many chakra control exercises as he could find. Which was a fair number once he started raiding the chunin library under his Henge. He wanted to improve his chakra suppression abilities a lot more before he tried for the jonin or ANBU libraries, or any of the clan libraries, which were far better guarded, since they contained techniques unique to Konoha. And for his purposes the chunin library was fine so far.

Currently he had mastered water walking to the point he could fight on water and was working on river walking. Which was pretty much the same thing except you attempted to water walk in the middle of river rapids, causing constant rapid shifts in the currents and density of the water around you, and therefore requiring much greater chakra control. He also had come across two very useful training seals in the Uzumaki sealing scrolls, though it had only been in the past couple months that he had become skilled enough with seals to safely place them on himself.

The first was a resistance seal, which worked similarly to weights or gravity seals for physical training, but could be controlled to a much greater degree to increase the resistance on individual muscles and movements rather than just the overall weight on a limb or the whole body for gravity seals. They also took a much greater skill with seals to place and manipulate than a weight seal, which could be easily just put on or removed without any knowledge of seals by the user. Not to mention it was an Uzumaki seal, and therefore not generally known.

The second was an even rarer seal called a chakra disrupter, which wasn't frequently used even by Uzumaki's, apparently. It was actually just a slightly modified version of one of the seals used to make sure prisoners couldn't use chakra. The more frequently used prisoner seal was a chakra inhibitor, which just blocked the use of chakra at all. But for those few with extremely high levels of chakra reserves, they could flare their chakra to break past such seals, so the chakra disruptor had been created. That seal caused constant massive fluctuations in a person's chakra, meaning that even if they had access to it, their chakra control was so destroyed they couldn't do anything with it. However, an Uzumaki had taken this idea to create a similar seal that was adjustable to how much the person's chakra was fluctuated, so at low levels, it was possible to slowly improve your control even with these fluctuations until you had an instinctive control over your chakra and could still use it even with the constant shifts. At which point you could increase the fluctuations slightly.

With this seal over the past couple months, even if only on a very low setting while he regularly worked on chakra control, he had finally achieved the chakra control of a below average academy student who had just unlocked their chakra. Which didn't sound very impressive except for the fact that he already had higher chakra reserves than the average jonin as an eight year old. It would have been even worse if he was actually a normal jinchuriki too. Because a small amount of youki, which was much more potent and naturally chaotic than human chakra, constantly mixed into his human chakra, if he weren't actually the Kyubi, any hope of ever getting decent chakra control probably would have been destroyed. But because of his centuries of experience of total control over that chakra which had effectively been his body, having even just a little bit of his youki in his system actually improved his chakra control slightly, rather than making it much worse.

And of course he had also continually been working on his henge jutsu. Though he had finally discovered why most ninja never bothered getting to the point they could use most jutsu seallessly. As he had discovered, it didn't really make using the jutsu any faster unless you put a _lot_ of time into it. In fact, at first, it was significantly slower. It had made sense when he had given it more thought. The seals were aids to channeling chakra, and assuming someone had decent hand speed, they could make the seals faster than they could generally use pure chakra manipulation to cause chakra to do the same things. It had taken six months of almost constant transformations throughout every day to make the jutsu sealless, and even now a year later, he was no faster with it than the average chunin could complete a transformation with hand-seals. He had also managed to remove all noise and smoke from his transformations in the process though. Still, it emphasized how much further he had to go if he wanted to make the technique something he could actually use in battle at a moment's notice, which was his ultimate goal.

He had been able to start very slowly removing his whisker-like birthmarks and increasing his height with the transformation technique though. The whiskers he honestly kind of liked, but he wanted as few things that connected this body to the Kyubi in the villager's minds as possible. It would be a slow process so no one really noticed the birthmarks fading over time, but by his academy graduation, they should be faint enough to be missed by civilians if they were not specifically looking for them, and they should be completely gone at this rate by the time he was sixteen or seventeen. And for his height...well, he was just naturally a short guy. His malnutrition from his time in the orphanage before he was able to start hunting and gathering most of his food probably hadn't helped. Though from what he had talked to the Hokage about his Minato, he had likewise been a little on the short side until a growth spurt in his late teens. Naruto had just forced that growth spurt a little early so he was now one of the taller kids his age.

So now he should be more than ready for the first day of the Academy. He had even gotten a new outfit for the occasion, which made him look rather badass for an eight year-old, not that he cared about such things. Or so he told himself. For his clothes, he had largely taken the example of the ANBU, as he wore the standard, lightly armored, all black sandals, ANBU pants with kunai and shruriken pouches, and sleeveless ANBU shirt with metal bracers. But he also wore long-sleeved mesh armor under the shirt, and had modified the sleeveless shirt to have a large Uzumaki clan symbol - the Uzumaki Swirl in burnt orange on the back. And to finish out the outfit, he had his wakizashi sheathed over his right shoulder and a pair of very dark sunglasses over his eyes.

Yes, he was definitely ready. Hopefully this time in the Academy would go a little better than last time.

* * *

Sakura Haruno had not had the good start to her first day at the Konoha Ninja Academy she had hoped for. She had arrived early, determined to make a good impression as she began her first day of her career as a kunoichi. Instead of the fresh start she had wanted, she had found that...well, her mother had refused to explain what the word meant, but she was pretty sure based on tone when she had overheard her mother say it that _bitch_ covered it.

Ami and her group of friends had been her tormentors in civilian school. She hadn't ever had many friends due to her general bookworm ways, odd pink hair, and oversized forehead. These together seemed to make her an easy target for the bullies of that school, led mostly by Ami. Ami was the most popular and cruelest child in their class for the past several years, who capitalized on her father being on the Civilian Council to create her own little power base with a group of bullies who pretty much ran her class when their sensei wasn't around.

The whole thing didn't make much sense to Sakura. Her mother was also on the Civilian Council, and Ami's hair was purple. How was that any less strange than pink hair anyway? But she supposed that Ami was able to use her more outgoing personality to draw the other little bullies in the class to her while Sakura's love of books and knowledge seemed to drive people away. Her mother said they were just intimidated she was so much smarter than them, but that wasn't much comfort.

But she had hoped that she could finally get some peace from the girl and her followers now that she was going to the Ninja Academy this year. But here she was, already with four of her followers from the Civilian School - two girls two boys. Apparently they couldn't even wait until classes officially started to start pushing her around and making fun of her hair and forehead.

Sakura knew the best way to handle this from extensive experience though, unfortunately. Just keep your head down, don't respond, and try not to cry. After all, they wouldn't _really_ hurt her. She might be their favorite target, but she was also the daughter of one of the Civilian Council members. Even Ami would get in trouble if they sent her to the hospital or something, and the others certainly would. Not that thinking about that was a whole lot of reassurance, since it appeared that the next five years of Ninja Academy might be far more like the last three of Civilian School than she had hoped.

But then her attempts to wipe away her tears before they were noticed were interrupted by someone yelling, "Hey Stupid Purple Banshee and even dumber...I don't know. Minions? Is that what you are? Whatever. Leave her alone or I will kick all your asses. I guess you are too cowardly to face someone one on one. Well, that's fine with me. All of you against me is still pretty unfair in my advantage." Sakura was shocked as she looked over and saw a blond boy about the same age as them clearly outfitted in shinobi gear. No one ever tried to interrupt Ami and her friends back in Civilian School, other than _sometimes_ the teachers. Maybe she could slip away while they beat up this other boy? No, that didn't seem right...Maybe if he used that sword over his shoulder he would scare them away? Surely he would get in trouble for something like that though, even in the Ninja Academy. She really wasn't sure to react to this though.

And she wasn't the only one. Ami and her friends had stopped pushing Sakura and reusing the same insults they had made for years and as one turned to look at the boy who dared interrupt them, though they still kept a tight circle around Sakura so she couldn't escape. Finally after a few seconds just staring at the blond boy, Ami recovered her normal attitude and responded, "Oh, it's you. Naru-something? Whatever, it doesn't matter. You are just some loser _orphan_. My mom told me about you anyway."

To Sakura's continued amazement, the blond boy just seemed amused at this as he smiled back at them. "It's Naruto Uzumaki, yes. And yes, I am an orphan. I'm not sure why that is relevant to the fact that I'm going to beat all of you up if you don't leave that girl alone. What did your mother tell you about me, for that matter?"

Ami sneered in that way she had that clearly showed she thought she was so much better than everyone. "She said you were a bad person. That I should stay away from you."

Naruto just kept smiling though as he said, "If I had to guess, I would probably say that what she actually said was that I was _dangerous_." He allowed a short pause and met Ami's eyes after he said this. From the widening of her eyes and slight paleness of her face, this was one of the things her mother had told her. Finally he continued, "I suppose I could be, if you annoy me enough. So just leave the girl alone and walk away."

But Ami looked around at her four friends, recovering her courage based in outnumbering Naruto five to one allowing her sneer to come back. "Whatever. There are five of us, and I'm the daughter of a Council member, while you are just an orphan nobody." She looked at her four friends. "Go show him his place." The two boys eagerly rushed forward, but the two other girls looked very nervous and remained standing near Ami, much to her apparent displeasure. Sakura, however, took this opportunity that Ami being focused on Naruto to quickly slip away, though he stayed close enough to watch the rest of the fight. Which was good, because it didn't last long.

It should be noted that this was the _first_ day of the Academy. So neither of them had any taijutsu training at all, nor even had their chakra unlocked at this point. And while Naruto was only marginally more skilled at hand-to-hand fighting, having focused almost entirely on kenjutsu so far, he had unlocked his chakra two years ago and had been putting himself through almost Gai-level physical training for over a year. He might not be all that impressive next to even an average genin physically, but compared to two untalented, untrained eight year old civilians, he might as well have been a Kage.

When the leading one lunged at him, trying to grab hold of him, Naruto took a step to the left, grabbed his opponent's hand and twisted to put him into a wrist lock. As the kid cried out at the sudden pain in his arm, he stumbled a few steps to his left and dropped to his knees, trying to alleviate the pressure Naruto was putting on his wrist and shoulder. This, unfortunately, put him directly in the path of the other attacker, who stumbled and tripped over him, planting his face into the dirt beside him. Naruto then released the first one and kicked him in the back, knocking him on his face as well.

Naruto then casually replaced his hands in his pockets and started slowly walking towards the three girls with the same grin he had kept for most of the conversation, though it might possibly have gained a slight sinister edge. "Now get lost. Or do you want to be put into the dirt too?" Needless to say, they were quick to leave, though Ami sent a furious glare over her shoulder as she retreated and gathered her two male lackeys from the dirt.

Sakura, like the few dozen other early arrivals who had gathered to watch the confrontation, watched in shock, then finally hurried up to Naruto with a hesitant smile as she shyly stated, "Thanks. Umm…I'm Sakura Haruno."

Naruto's now happy grin grew wider, if that was physically possible. "No problem Sakura-san. I ran into that Ami girl before. She was a jerk then too, so I'm glad to help you out and dish out a little well deserved humiliation while I'm at it. Besides, she needs to learn that her 'I'm the daughter of a Civilian Council member and can do whatever I want' won't fly here. Especially not with all the Clan heirs in our class. I won't be the only one in our class who can kick the ass of her and all her little followers by themselves."

"Oh. How did you do that though? I mean, if you are just an orphan..." She trailed off and blushed brightly. "I mean...I didn't mean that in a bad way. That was just pretty awesome, and I was wondering where you learned to do that." She blushed even brighter at this point and looked down at the ground.

"Yeah, it's ok. I have been training for the past couple years, wanting to make sure I am ready for the Academy. I may be an orphan, but that doesn't mean that I can't be just as good as any of the Clan kids in our class with some work."

A little more hesitantly, and still not meeting Naruto's eyes, Sakura asked, "Do you think that I could learn to do stuff like that?"

Naruto laughed in response, but not in a mocking way. "Sure. It might take some hard work, but you can do it if you want. You are certainly at the right place to learn to put some bullies in their place. And don't worry about what those idiots were talking about. I think your hair looks kind of cool. It's unique, which is a good thing, and anyone who says different is just jealous. Or a sheep. Regardless, ignore them. And your forehead really isn't that large. You will grow into it anyway. And you definitely shouldn't feel ashamed of reading more and being smarter than them. They are just idiots and know it, so they feel threatened."

Having only recently recovered from her previous blush, it returned with full force. "Th-thanks." After a few moments silence while Naruto continued smiling at her, she looked up and met his eyes for the first time in a while and slowly she asked, "Do you really think so?"

"Sure. Besides, we are here to learn to be kick-ass ninja, not how to make ourselves look as pretty as possible. So just show them that you can be an awesome kunoichi. They can spend their time being stuck-up idiots and worrying about all that other stuff until they end up failing the Academy, getting married to some fat old merchant, and wondering where their life went wrong. Who do you think will be laughing then?"

Sakura did laugh at that point as she enjoyed that image. Still grinning, though not quite as widely as Naruto, she said, "Thanks Naruto-san."

Nodding in response, Naruto replied, "Sure Sakura-san. We should probably get to our classroom though. It's still a little early, but better early than late, right?"

Sakura nodded emphatically, still smiling, and headed towards the classroom building. "Yeah, come on."

* * *

Naruto was very pleased with how his morning had gone. It had been an almost perfect initial introduction to the Academy this year. He had been able to show himself as a powerful and talented student, make friends with the daughter of one of the Civilian Council members, and humiliate an annoyance all before classes even actually began. Not that most of his classmates had witnessed the confrontation, but if he knew anything about humans, he was sure that the story would be heard by all by the end of the day at the latest. Probably with some major embellishments.

He had run into Ami several times before. Once as Naruto in one of the few times he had traveled through one of the public parks under his own face in the past year and a half, and twice more under different faces. The time with his face had, of course, been the worst. Her mother had been there and had been quick to talk badly about him to her daughter, as well as encourage her already extensive bullying habits towards him. The other two meetings hadn't been as annoying, but nor had they been pleasant as she tried to establish her dominance over the new kid in the park when he just wanted a chance to relax and take a break from training.

Unfortunately parents had been within eyesight, if not close enough to hear, on all occasions, so he hadn't been able to teach the brat a lesson at the time. He certainly hadn't wanted to start a mob by giving her the beating she deserved with his own face. And knocking around the daughter of one of the Civilian Council members with the face of a boy who didn't actually exist didn't seem like a wise idea either.

So he had been quite pleased to be able to seize this opportunity. Of course she was the daughter of one of the members of the Civilian Council, so ideally he would have been her friend as well. It was never going to happen with someone with a personality like that though, so best to just show her what her place really was from the beginning and avoid as many problems as possible. As long as he could avoid hospitalizing her, he should be fine.

So his smile was quite justified in his opinion as he settled down into a seat next to Sakura and continued to work to bring her out of her shy shell. It was a little early to tell, but it seemed like the girl had potential even beyond who her mother was. She was clearly quite intelligent for an eight year old. So maybe if he could encourage the development of her ninja skills, she would be the first of his future fellow ninja of the leaf to become allies with.

After a few more minutes, the rest of the children in his class had drifted in and taken their seats, and the two teachers eventually came to the front to introduce themselves as chunin by the names of Iruka and his assistant Mizuki. Both smiled as they looked over the class, even towards him. If he hadn't been focusing on his sensor abilities, he might have missed it, as the smiles were fairly convincing. But he could tell by the minute fluctuations in Mizuki's chakra that he clearly had extremely negative feelings towards him. Strong enough that they could only be defined as hatred.

Iruka on the other hand, was more difficult to interpret. He had some negative feelings towards him, but seemed to be struggling to control them. That most likely indicated that Iruka would at least be willing to give him a chance, which was probably the best that he could hope for. Naruto would have to see if it would be possible to get access to Iruka's file. It probably wasn't very well guarded since he was just a chunin Academy teacher, and there wouldn't be much, if any, high clearance information included. It might have some hints in it of the best ways to go about winning Iruka's trust though.

But he would have to consider that later. For now they were having all of the students introduce themselves, so he made sure to listen to each for hints of their personalities. Details such as likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams with the correct interpretations could reveal far more about these children than they intended. Information which could be extremely important over the next few years.

Finally, it was Naruto's turn to introduce himself to the class. He stood up with a bright smile as he looked around at the other students, focusing most of his attention on the children from most of the ninja clans of Konoha, but making sure to make eye contact with each student. "Hi, I am Naruto Uzumaki. I like training and ramen, and I dislike people who judge me before getting to know me. My hobbies are gardening and spending times in nature, especially camping and hunting, and my dream is to be Hokage!"

Sasuke Uchiha was roused from his brooding as he snorted in amusement and sneered at Naruto. "Yeah right. As if a clanless orphan looser like you could become Hokage."

Naruto turned to Sasuke giving him a glare much more fierce and filled with just enough focused killing intent to make the other boy flinch from him and lower his eyes. "Shut up Uchiha. The more you talk, the more you show how much of an idiot you are." He then waited for the inevitable yells at him about how wonderful the 'last Uchiha' was to die down before continuing, "for all of your information, I am the last known member of the Uzumaki clan."

Sasuke, recovering his sneer with the support of his budding fan club replied, "Uzumaki? That's not a clan. It's probably not even a real surname, just something someone came up with you go with your first name. They seemed to have made a mistake and thought you were named after a maelstrom, rather than a ramen topping."

Naruto interrupted Sasuke at this point. "As I said, you should stop talking. The more you do, the more you prove you have no knowledge of history. Though granted, from looking around, it doesn't look like many people do. The Uzumaki clan was once one of the most famous clans in the world, on par with the Senju and the Uchiha. In fact, we are cousins with the Senju clan, and our assistance in some of the battles against the Uchiha before Konoha was built was one of the reasons even the warmongering Uchiha Madara was forced to accept peace talks with the Senju Clan."

Naruto paused at this point and looked around at the mixture of interested and amazed looks in the room before he continued, "The Uzumaki clan then went on to help the Senju clan in the creation of Konoha after the famous agreement between the Senju and Uchiha clans. That is the reason all jonin wear the Uzumaki Swirl on their chunin flak jackets and on the sleeves of jonin." Naruto turned and showed everyone the back of his shirt with his clan symbol before continuing, "the Shodaime Hokage declared that they would wear this symbol in homage to the Uzumaki clan, which was so instrumental to the creation of Konoha. For that matter, the leaf symbol all Konoha ninja wear on their forehead protectors was based on the Uzumaki clan symbol. And Hashirama Senju also went on to marry an Uzumaki who he met during this period of building Konoha, Mito Uzumaki.

The Uzumaki were offered a place in Konoha as one of the founding clans as well, but turned it down in favor of leaving to create their own village. Eventually they settled in and created both the Land of Whirlpools and Uzushiogakure, where the Uzumaki clan was both daimyo of that land as well as Kages of the village. We remained close allies with Konoha because of our old bonds with the Senju clan, however."

It was at this point that Sakura hesitantly spoke up. "So, umm...If they are such a powerful clan and allies of Konoha, why haven't we heard of them? For that matter, why are you here rather than there?"

Naruto sighed and looked down at the table before looking back up to meet the eyes of the other academy students as he answered, "For why you haven't heard of them, I don't know. You _should _have from your parents or at least in school because of our importance in the history of this village. But I guess some people are quick to forget debts owed when they think they can. And the reason I am here and not there is because the village doesn't exist anymore. It was destroyed down to the last person early in the Second Shinobi World War. My mother only survived because she was visiting her aunt Mito Uzumaki here in Konoha at the time."

Sasuke was shocked that Naruto was the last survivor of a clan like he was, and remained silent at this point, deep in thought. However, Kiba Inuzuka laughed and said, "Well, I guess that happens to weak clans like that." Even the other students who didn't really like Naruto and had been warned away from him by their parents shifted uncomfortably and thought that a pretty terrible thing to say about someone's dead family.

And Naruto's glare this time was far more vicious than before and contained a great deal more killing intent. Enough to reduce Kiba to cowering and not far from what would be required to drive him unconscious. Iruka interrupted at this point and quickly started to tell Naruto to stop but was cut off as Naruto continued, ignoring Iruka for now.

"Actually Kiba, it took three great villages working together to destroy Uzushiogakure. The Uzumaki had grown to be feared throughout the world since the creation of the village as the greatest Fuinjutsu and Kenjutsu masters in the world, not to mention our bloodline, and it was on the verge of becoming recognized as the sixth Great Village. Kumo, Iwa, and especially Kiri, given the short distance between the two villages, didn't want that, so they joined together to attack and destroy the Uzumaki before we could become a threat. But we did _not_ fall easily. According to what records remain, a full two thirds of the ninja force comprised of all three countries died assaulting our one _minor_ village, especially Kiri, which lost almost its entire assaulting force. It is said that the seas around the island that contained Uzushio were stained red with the blood of those who dared try and bypass Uzumaki seals.

They might have killed almost my entire clan, but they lost their own ninja at odds of around ten to one. According to records written by Hokage-sama himself, it was directly because of these losses that both Kumo and Kiri withdrew from the Second Shinobi World War. In fact, it has been speculated that the reason Kiri didn't participate in the Third Shinobi World War was because they were _still_ recovering from the losses taken against Uzushiogakure, since they tried to lead the charge against the Uzumaki."

He paused to glare around the classroom. "So you should be a little grateful, because without the Uzumaki inflicting those losses at the cost of their own village, Konoha would have had all four other Great Villages coming against it instead of just Suna, Ame, and a weakened Iwa. And Konoha would have been destroyed to the last man just as Uzushio was. Your grandparents lived because of the sacrifice of mine."

Kiba spoke up again at this point, though he was clearly much more subdued than he had been, "Is...Is all that true Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka nodded slowly, looking over at Naruto, then sweeping his eyes over the rest of the classroom. "Well I don't know some of the details Naruto talked about, but in general at least, yes. The Uzumaki clan did help build Konoha, and they are where the symbol on the chunin flak jackets and jonin sleeves came from. And I have read about their almost miraculous defense of their village, defeated only by massively overwhelming numbers." He frowned at this point in deep thought before continuing, "Honestly this information really should be included in the academy curriculum. It was when I came through, but seems to have been removed at some point." He gave an uncomfortable look over at Naruto, who shrugged in response. "I'll bring it up with Hokage-sama and make sure that this important historical information is included in future lessons."

After a short silence in which everyone took this new information in and looked on Naruto with new eyes, Iruka started in on the introductory lessons. Naruto, having heard it before the previous time he started at the academy paid very little attention as he leaned back in his chair with a small satisfied smile playing across his lips.

Of course he didn't actually care about the 'honor of the Uzumaki Clan,' or any nonsense like that. He did have some respect for power of the clan, but it was fairly difficult to truly wish to honor a clan that one of the primary goals in his current existence was to see the end of. Afterall, it was only upon the completely end of all of the descendents of the Sage of the Six Paths that it would be truly safe to discard this body even if he found a method of doing so.

But for now, revealing his status as heir to a famous clan - descendent of Kages and Daimyos...It would be one of the first major steps to rehabilitating his image in Konoha. Eventually he needed to convince the population of the lie the Hokage had long bought into. Regardless of what his ultimate goals were, he would need the village's support. It would not be an easy road, but Kitsune were not renowned tricksters and manipulators for nothing.

**A/N:**

Again, no Sakura will not be the pairing in this story. But since it seems incredibly rare in fanfiction for Sakura to not be either bashed or paired with Naruto (granted, the same goes for Sasuke, unfortunately), I thought I would try a third option. They will actually just be friends. The main reasons they didn't really get along for most of part one was because Naruto was legitimately very loud and annoying and had an unwanted crush on her. Neither of which will be true here. The whole crush on Sasuke thing might be a little annoying for Naruto, but since he has no romantic interest in her, there is no reason he would actually care that much. Well, other than his tentative plans to someday kill Sasuke. But there's no reason that should get in the way of a friendship, right?

The information included about the Second Great Shinobi World War and how Uzushio was destroyed is mostly conjecture, but nothing conflicts with what we currently know, at least. We know it was attacked by an overwhelming force early in the war, and it can be assumed they inflicted pretty major casualties in exchange for their destruction given how badass they are portrayed when they come up. We also know that neither Kiri, nor Kumo significantly participated in most of the war, which could be explained by these losses. Also, we know that the second Tsuchikage was pretty pissed at the second Mizukage for...something at around this point. Maybe for getting his village involved in a fight that didn't really concern it and taking much, much higher losses than Kiri claimed would be taken going into it? Or maybe they just hated eachother's personalities. Whatever. It's a good enough explanation for the purposes of fanfiction.

Anyway, please review! I don't care if it's just a short, "I liked it," a detailed breakdown of what you think I did wrong (and hopefully can improve on), or even just informing me of a grammar or spelling mistake, I would appreciate it. But please no flames. I don't mind criticism as long as it is constructive, but a simple, "This is the worst thing ever written," or "You suck" will be ignored.


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